Majutsushi Orphen Hagure Tabi

Being someone who's never watched the original 1998-1999 run of Orphen, I can definitely say that I wasn't missing out on anything much. But hearing that a soft reboot of this is greenlit for achieving monetary milestone sales of the LN (and coincidentally the 25th anniversary of the series), I decided to take a gamble on this new "refreshed" retake, but holy cow, more than making justice to the original run in the first few episodes (I'll give it that), this adaptation managed to be something worse, and not for the lack of trying. If you'd ask me what magical fantasy series stood out in the90s, there was some of the action-adventure shows that easily had made their mark as classics like Slayers, the mediocre Bakuretsu Hunters, or even in the 2000s with shows like Kaze no Stigma. Those shows can be recommended in a heartbeat. But Orphen? That is only through word-of-mouth or by sheer coincidence that your TV cable service actually was showing anime that was brought over to the West when it got popular in the late 90s. And believe me, in writing this review I had to scour for information for people that knew the source material better than me, and from one source I can quote that: "Some things are give-or-take when comparing the 90s to this version, like the magic summoning (which is what the novels actually had that was justice, the "I summon thee, <insert element name>" part and such). The story itself is as standard fare as magical fantasies go, and telling the MC's story (in this case, Krylancelo/Orphen) and his relationship with the character cast, poised with the figure of being the best of the best and with the usual villainy stuff. Whilst the character effects are loosely inspired from Slayers, their weights on Orphen do vary from relation to relation, and honestly to me are nothing but a bunch of nuisances, as much as I want to get invested in them. They may aren't be in 1998, but definitely now in 2020. And of course, who else than getting Studio Deen for the job, because and with honesty, it's the studio where all the shitty works go when there is no future for the shows under their belt (only in rare cases like KonoSuba and the highly-rated production shows where they ACTUALLY excelled), and this show is no exception. And I'd get it, Studio Deen, par on their horrible record, has been around since the mid-80s, and for Orphen to accomplish the 90s style with modern animation, that does not mesh together in times such as now. "All style and no substance" is the only way I can brand this show. The OST is one to be laughable at. I mean for one, the original VA for Orphen, Shoutarou Morikubo is asked once again to recast his voice for the reboot whilst all the others are new VAs that are unlike Orphen's. And that pretty much removes close to naught with the nostalgia for people who'd watched the 90s version and thought that it was a nice and good show (bar the insane fillers of that). The OP I've gotta admit, it sounds and feels like a joke while trying to recapture the 90s cheesy opening's feel, but while it's average at best, it's definitely catchy and one of my guilty favourites. Can't quite say the same for Mai Fuchigami's ED, I don't know why but her song repertoire is beginning to feel like it's on a B/C-grade songlist that's to hear once and forget about it. More than trying to replicate the trend that is with Dororo last year in the realm of creating classic reboots that surpass the original, this show is an abject failure in all respect and to the people that enjoyed the 90s version, I'd say this is even worse than Orphen: Revenge, and even if you don't take my word for it, try this for yourself at your own risk. This isn't a show to reintroduce a franchise that's long gone from a classic era, but rather warrants people to try the original 24-episode run instead that's better in every way. In a nutshell, only attempt this if you have time on your hands to waste. Believe me, I've tried to look at this show positively and give it a chance, but it always threw the potential away.

I'm just writing this review to let you know not to waste your time watching this anime. Some other reviews weren't clear on that in my opinion. This anime seemed to have all the good ingredients, fantasy, drama, mystery but the final product is appalling. Characters are not only generic they are also thrown in the episodes with unknown powers and motivations. Even the main character has this problem, but when needed something "magic" will save the day. The fights are horrible as for some reason these become a narrative to tell about the powers and characters with flash backs and all. And the fast pace wit massivematerial compressed in a small quantity of episodes can not be used as an excuse. There are a plenty of flash backs to the previous episodes, plenty of precious minutes wasted. The art looks decent at first sight, but appearing/disappearing weapons/details totally ruins that too. And as there is nothing to work with music and voice acting cannot help. Conclusion, only watch this to know how not to make an anime.

So seeing all the hate for the anime and the really unfair score it has, I decided to write a review. Story: Orphen's story is set in a fantasy setting where our protagonist Orphen is looking for his friend who transformed into a dragon and flew away 5 years ago. Orphen's story might not seem much at first, but trust me it gets thicker as you go along. And and the world is amazing. It has so much lore which I really dig in fantasy stories. Not to mention the world building. Art: I thought it was really good and consistent. The fight scenes were also amazing. Nothing ufotablequality of course, but any action fan is gonna be satisfied with this one Sound: Also really good. The soundtrack selection was really good and fit the anime well Characters: I really liked Orphen. He's not the typical bratty Shonen MC. He's actually 20 years old which is a breath of fresh air from all these teenage protagonists. Cleo is the energetic companion of Orphen. She's rich, and cooks bad food... Yeah that's all you need to know. She will get more development in future seasons I'm sure, but right now, she's my least favorite of the party. Majic is Orphen's second companion. He's trying to be a sorcerer, so he's adventuring with Orphen as his apprentice. I like Majic. He's not annoying like Cleo, and from what we've seen has tremendous potential as a sorcerer. So I'm really excited to see his growth. Other characters are Orphen's former friends from his old days. Some are interesting, and some are not so much. The most important one from them is Lazalie. Orphen's friend who turned into a dragon. I don't want to talk a lot about her because spoilers. Overall: Orphen for me is a must watch for any action fantasy fan. I honestly wanted to give it a higher score, but I just needed more development for the characters like Majic & Cleo. Please don't let the score keep you from missing on this one. I enjoyed it a lot. And maybe you'll do too.

Animation: As a long-time fan of this series, I had high expectations but I feared Deen would reprise their freakshow of Nanatsu. I was dead wrong, but they didn't improve that much either. Deen is actually good with fighting scenes and effects, although they're too quick to get a taste. The first episode has an ok fight while the brawl with Salua was very good-looking indeed. The only good-looking frames are the close-ups. Background characters always look weird and badly drawn. Scenarios are mostly static and lifeless. So basically, animation-wise, this first season is a 5/10 Story: A good story on its own doesn't hold muchlonger, because it needs proper adaptation and Deen rushed the fuck out of it, damn. All the books up until 6 range from 140 to 190 pages, so at least 3 to 4 episodes by book adapted. The first book got 4 episodes, but they cut content and decided to drag on the 4th episode with tons of flashbacks so they managed to make the first arc look both rushed and dragged. Books adapted were 1,4,5 and 6. Book 2 has important lore elements, that's why they had to make an OVA to explain it. Book 3 doesn't add that much but it's one of the most gory and violent stories and it has a thriller feeling, so it wouldn't fit well in Deen's shoneing up of this series (Yes, Orphen is a SEINEN series). Book 4 had 2 episodes, rushed too. The story gets better with books 5 and 6 because they had more episodes to them and didn't commit the same mistake as the first arc, so I'd give the story adaptation an overall of 6/10, considering what was adapted. Music: It's lackluster almost all the time if you ask me. It does its job, but it's not remarkable. I think it only stands out during very dramatic scenes and that's it, which is a shame since 98 and Revenge had a kickass OST, so I'd give this a 6/10.

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